


Field Trip

by xenosaurus



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Field Trip, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-08 22:48:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11656290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xenosaurus/pseuds/xenosaurus
Summary: Akira, at the tender age of ten, has his first crush.





	Field Trip

"You remembered your money?  I can't leave work to bring it to you."

Akira shrugs his backpack off one shoulder and spins it around so he can show his mother it's contents.  The green pleather kitty face on the front smiles up at him.  Akira's father thinks his backpack is too juvenile for a ten year old, but Akira hasn't been forced to give it up yet.

His mother gives his packing a once-over, taking note of the presence of his wallet.  It has  a pokeball pattern and represents another victory in the battle against encroaching adulthood.  Besides the wallet, he has his emergencies-only cell phone, a notebook and pencils for the inevitable field trip homework, a sealed baggie of crackers, and a carefully folded towel.

His mother nods her approval and zips the bag back up.  Akira's face gives nothing away, but he cheers internally.  He has his DS hidden in the towel, and he just got away with it.

"Go on, then," She sighs, idly patting Akira on the head.  "Have a fun trip."

"I will!" Akira agrees readily.  He leaves the house at a near run, buzzing with excitement.  It's too far to run all the way to school, no matter what Ryuji says, but Ann's house is only halfway.

There's a low stone wall separating Ann's small yard from the street, and Akira hauls himself up onto it with the practiced ease of a child who climbs anything and everything.

Ann is waiting for him on her front steps.  She has her hair pulled up into two tiny ponytails, her bangs held in place with mermaid clips.  It isn't really long enough for this style, but she still looks cute.

"You look cute this morning, Ann-chan!" Akira calls from the top of the wall.  She giggles and crosses the short distance to stand with her arms resting on the wall.

"Do you think Shiho will think so?" She asks.  Akira gives her a thumbs up.  Ann has been trying really hard to impress her new friend, and Akira is doing his best to cheer her on.

"Of course!  C'mon, lets go, if Ryuji beats us to school we'll never hear the end of it!"

Ryuji lives in the opposite direction of the school than Akira and Ann, and after a recent sleepover at Akira's house, he's taken to teasing them for how long it takes them to get to school.

Ann opens the gate out of her yard while Akira drops down from the wall.  The landing hurts for a quick second, but he walks it off.

They do beat Ryuji to school, but just barely.  It doesn't prevent Ann from gloating, which starts Akira's two best friends on their morning bickering.  It begins the moment they spot messy black hair coming up behind them on the sidewalk.

Akira normally plays a role somewhere between mediator and commentator, but he's distracted this morning.  The rest of their class is gathering in front of the school to wait for the bus, and Yusuke Kitagawa is sitting in the grass by himself.  This isn't unusual, so it hasn't caught anyone else's interest, but Akira has a personal stake in this particular classmate.

Okay, that's a really melodramatic way to put it.  Akira _likes_ Yusuke.  He's aware that it's strange that he likes a boy, but he hasn't quite worked out the implications of it.  Yusuke has a cute smile and a quiet sense of humor, and he's the only kid in class who can draw the monsters from featherman.  Akira doesn't know how anyone _doesn't_ like him.

He's got his sketchbook out again, and Akira really wants to know what he's drawing.  He always feels shy where Yusuke is concerned, though, so he stays in the safe zone that surrounds his arguing friends.

"You only got here before me because I had to go back for my bag!"

"How did you forget your entire backpack in the first place?!"

The teacher tells them off for being too loud and ushers them into the crowd of other children.  Ann spots Shiho and exchanges a quick fortifying glance with Akira before going to meet up with her.  They don't yet know if they'll be picking their own partners for the day, so the high-stakes pairing off has begun.

Akira has been partnering with Ryuji for three years, so they’re exempt from the whole stressful process.

“How’d it go?” Ryuji asks in a whisper that’s way too loud. He’s asking about their DS-smuggling plan. Akira grins and winks, which makes Ryuji’s smile grow. He gives Akira an affectionate punch in the shoulder.

“Hell yeah, dude!”

“Sakamoto-kun, language!”

Ryuji winces and ducks his head when the teacher shouts at him. Akira snickers a little and gets an elbow in the ribs for his trouble.

“Jerk, don’t laugh at me,” Ryuji mutters, but he’s back to grinning. Akira puts an arm around his friend’s shoulders.

The good mood doesn’t last long, though, because the teacher claps twice to get their attention. Akira and Ryuji untangle themselves and go quiet, waiting for whatever announcement comes next.

“The bus will be here in a few minutes, so I think now is a good time to give you guys your assigned partners.”

There are scattered groans of complaint from the class, one coming from Ryuji. The teacher ignores them and starts listing off pairings. To nobody’s surprise, they’ve been carefully arranged to avoid pairing anyone with their friends. Ann is with Yuuki Mishima, and _Ryuji_ has been paired up with Shiho Suzui. Akira is watching that train wreck with his full attention until his partnership is announced.

“Akira Kurusu and Yusuke Kitagawa.”

It’s a bit like the world stops, just for a second. Yusuke meets Akira’s eye from across the cluster of children and smiles. Heat rushes to Akira’s face in a prickly wave and he smiles back, waving shyly.

The teacher isn't totally done reading the names yet, but it hasn't prevented the crowd from shuffling around as people find their partners.  Akira gives Ryuji a parting shoulder-nudge and heads for Yusuke.  It's silly for his heart to be beating this fast, but he's _excited_ , and nervous.

"Hi," Akira says once he's reached Yusuke on the other side of the gathered kids.  It comes out sounding really inane and not cool at all, but Yusuke is still smiling.  He usually only smiles this much when they're setting up for art class.

"Hello," Yusuke says, keeping his voice soft while the teacher finishes reading the list.  He's always polite like that, and it makes Akira self-conscious about the way he talks.  Does Yusuke think he's rude and unpleasant to be around?

"Are you, um, excited to see the fish?" Akira asks, unreasonably nervous.  He's usually one of the more confident kids in class, but he's fidgeting with his hair right now.

But that was apparently the right question to ask, because Yusuke lights up.  It doesn't swallow his whole face the way it does when Ryuji or Ann gets excited, but the general serenity of his expression doesn't detract from the way he starts talking faster and the delight in his eyes.

"Absolutely.  I heard a rumor that they have horseshoe crabs on exhibit.  Did you know they have blue blood?  They feel like creatures from another world.  I've always wanted to meet one."

Akira suddenly wishes he'd read less about sea lions and more about crabs in preparation for this trip.

"We can go see them first," Akira offers, lamenting that he has no crab facts to exchange.

"Excellent!" Yusuke says.  Akira thinks it might be his version of 'yay', and there's something really charming about his preference for longer words.

The bus arrives right on time, and separating the friendships seems to have paid off for the teachers.  Ryuji and Akira can't start any song-chants when they have six rows between them, at least.

Honestly, what Akira _actually_ does during the bus ride is way more fun than what he would have been doing with Ryuji. Not that he’d tell him that, of course. That would be mean.

Yusuke, after a moment of shy hesitance, spends the trip to the aquarium showing Akira his sketchbook. Akira has seen the handful of things he draws to satisfy pestering classmates who want anime characters for their binders, but he’s never seen what Yusuke does on his own time. There are drawings of classmates that he can actually identify without being told who they are, and different scenery from school done in colored pencil.

“You… This is me,” Akira says, a little hypnotized by a sketch from last week. He knows what day it was drawn because the subject is himself, hanging upside down from the monkey bars on the playground. Akira knew Yusuke was watching him that afternoon, and he’d been showing off.

He still has the scabs on his palms and knees to show for it. That was an embarrassing trip to the nurse’s office, and he hasn’t done that move since.

He looks up at Yusuke, and finds him blushing and looking away.

“It was an interesting angle,” He mumbles. Akira laughs, flustered.

“I’m not upset! I, um. Well. You know how I like to show off. I don’t mind that you drew me.”

Yusuke tilts his head.

“So… you do these things on purpose, then? It’s a performance?”

Akira feels self-conscious again, but he nods.

“It sounds kinda lame when you put it that way…”

“Not at all! Performing is an art-form!”

Yusuke looks and sounds a little desperate to assure Akira that he wasn’t trying to insult him. Akira smiles at him.

“Nobody’s ever called my dumb stunts art before.”

“Well, they are! Sometimes, I see you do things that wouldn’t be out of place in a gymnastics routine!”

Akira’s grin widens. He’s starting to get into the conversation enough to lose his nerves.

“I’ve been trying to get my mom to let me take gymnastics lessons, actually. She says they’re for girls.”

“That’s ridiculous. You’re already a natural talent, you’d do wonderfully in a class like that.”

“You think so?”

“Of course. There’s no reason your gender should hold you back from your calling.”

“Thanks, Yusuke-kun,” Akira says, scooting over so their knees touch. Yusuke’s face goes red all over again.

From the back of the bus, Ryuji starts shouting about bug type pokemon, and Shiho laughs loudly. Akira and Yusuke share a look.

When they actually arrive at the Aquarium, the teacher gives them instructions on not getting lost, sticking with their buddies, and when they’re supposed to gather for lunch. Their homework was assigned while they were still on the bus, and is written down in the corner of the most recent page in Yusuke’s sketchbook.

“Crabs?” Akira asks Yusuke, as soon as the other kids start dispersing. Yusuke smiles brightly and grabs Akira’s hand.

“Yes! Crabs first, please.”

Akira has gone completely red. They don’t have to hold hands. That was something they did on field trips when they were younger, but not—

He shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

He holds Yusuke’s hand as they walk through the jellyfish room, headed straight for the crabs.

Akira has never enjoyed crustaceans this much in his life.

**Author's Note:**

> my tumblr is @[xenosaurus](http://xenosaurus.tumblr.com)!


End file.
